The construction firm Heijmans of Holland has just unveiled a prototype for a prefabricated home, which they plan to erect in city areas and rent out to single young people looking for their first home. This first version of the home is called Heijmans ONE and should be launched soon.

Earlier this year a team of students from the University of Technology in Trondheim designed a very sustainable hut as part of a design- and building workshop. They were assisted by Rintala Eggertsson Architects and several others. The international seminar that the workshop was part of was focused on the future of eco-tourism in the Western Ghats region in India. And the main purpose of it was to find sustainable solutions, which would benefit both the local population as well as help preserve the environment in the region.

In 2013 the furniture giant IKEA, in collaboration with the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) developed the so-called Refugee Housing Unit (RHU), a flat packed shelter for housing refugees, which is much easier to assemble and a lot more durable than other such shelters currently in use. Since then, the shelters have been tested in areas like Iraq and Ethiopia and have been deemed a huge success.

The design firm B-ILD recently renovated an old, World War II bunker into a cozy underground hotel, which is also super safe and could protect the inhabitants from most apocalyptic or cataclysmic events. The bunker tiny apartment is located in Fort Vuren in the Netherlands, and was originally created as part of an advertising campaign, which involved renting it out for the holidays to the winning family. But they are now keeping it open to rent out to the general public as well.

While shipping containers are great for building affordable and comfortable homes quickly, not all architects are quite sold on their benefits. Many, however, still find the basic shape a great inspiration for designing their homes. Below are a few shipping container inspired homes, which are not actually built out of shipping containers. But some of them, nonetheless, do use very innovative building blocks.

With the new elevator proposed by ThyssenKrupp, elevators as we know them could be a thing of the past. While the invention of the elevator made the skyscraper possible, this new elevator could once again redefine the urban architecture and design. The new elevator would be able to go up and down, as well as side to side, and do so without any cables or pulleys, or the need to wait for the elevator in case you just missed it.